The Lonely Ones
by the-white-deer
Summary: In a world conquered by creatures abducting people, a young boy without memories and his unusual companion, an alien cat, are left alone to survive. When the Doctor appears, they decide to fight against the intruders. But what is it with the boy's past? Why is he accompanied by this strange cat? Behind all that, there is a great secret hidden... AU, set after season 3's finale.
1. Chapter 1: The Boy and the Cat

_In a world conquered by creatures abducting people, a young boy without memories and his unusual companion, an alien cat, are left alone to survive. When the Doctor appears, they decide to fight against the intruders. But what is it with the boy's past? Why is he accompanied by this strange cat? Behind all that, there is a great secret hidden... AU, set after season 3's finale._

Hello, my dear fellow fanfiction. net users and welcome to my first fanfic ever!

After a long time I've decided to publish it and share it with you, so I hope you'll like it.

I'm sorry if there are mistakes or anything else, but I'm not a native speaker. However, if you spot anything, just tell me in the reviews and I'll try to fix it.

So, enough chit-chat, but before I'll leave you to read it, here's the disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Doctor Who and its characters and ideas. I only own the OCs!

And now, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 1: The Boy and the Cat

**Sun. After all this time, it seems like simple light is the most precious thing on this earth. There are only few times when the wall of clouds rips up and allows some rays of light to shine through.  
**

**Since they have attacked, nothing has been the same. They... No one knows what they really look like, but to me, they seem like shadows. I'll just call them that.**

**Three months ago, they arrived with huge spaceships and destroyed a good part of the country with their laser beams, then landed and built up some strange sort of metal chimneys polluting the air and causing all these clouds. I don't know if they have some kind of factories somewhere, or why they do have them.**

**No one could stop them, because everybody who comes in touch with them has disappeared. I think I am one of the last ones, it's been 3 weeks since I've seen the last other human being. **

**London's not the same anymore, but I've found a house to live in and luckily, I haven't run into one of the shadows yet. It's just me and Sharlto... And that's why I am writing down these words, as a chronicle of what has happened. Maybe someday someone will find – **

With a loud crack, the pencil's tip broke and tumbled down onto the pile of stones on which Andrew had settled down this afternoon.

"Oi! Not again!", the twelve-year-old exclaimed and jumped up. Normally, he would have thrown away the pencil and taken a new one, but in these times, nothing was normal. Last week, he had found a set of pencils in the ruins of a shop and they soon had turned out to be his most precious belongings.

The third one this week. "I definitely need a pencil sharpener", the boy mumbled while brushing away the dust from his trousers.

Andrew sighed. It was futile and pointless to search in the cold rubble for a little tip, and so he decided to fold the dusty and slightly torn paper and put it in his pocket again.

He looked at the sky. Amidst the grey clouds, the warm sun had found a way through.

Andrew climbed up the stones of what once had been a shop in a busy London road. Now, there was nothing left anymore.

On the top, he held a hand above his eyes and looked at the now illuminated remains of what had been a normal world just few months ago.

Everything was dusty, cold and slightly wet from rain. Rubble lay on the broken tarmac, dead trees bowed down where they had been hit by the lasers. But still the light seemed to be a sign of hope for this destroyed world, even if there wasn't anyone to share the view with.

Nearly everyone was gone. A month ago, Andrew had seen the last other human... When said one had been hunted down by a shadow. Only a grey scheme with red eyes, holding out something like a hand. One touch, and the man had vanished. Like the others had done, too.

In the first days after the invasion, it really had been horrifying to see how people were caught. Andrew had hidden in a tree. Luckily...

It was good to feel the warmth on your skin, to hold up your face in the sun and let it be illuminated. Sun really was the most precious thing on earth, after all.

Somewhere in the back of the landscape, on a hill in Greenwich, one of the metal chimneys, glistening in the vanishing sun light, towered over earth and polluted the sky again. Whatever the shadows did there... It definitely was not good.

A loud growling behind him caused the boy to nearly tumble down as he slipped on a little stone. He turned around.

It was a large animal that approached him, a cat. It was coated in white fur that seemed to glow in the sunlight and which was adorned with black speckles. This, along with the long pointy ears and unnatural green eyes staring at him, gave the creature a more alien-like look, resembling a cross of a lynx and a tiger.

In its sharp fangs, the monster carried something which it let fall down at the foot of the pile, then sat down, seemingly satisfied with itself.

The object was in fact... A simple can of beans.

"Sharlto! Good boy!", Andrew screamed, jumped down and embraced the giant cat. He was greeted by a hum.

Ever since when Andrew could think of, Sharlto had been his companion. However, he did not know how he had come across the cat. The problem was, Andrew couldn't remember much from the months before. It was gone, and he didn't know why he had this amnesia.

He looked at Sharlto. In the sunlight, the cat seemed even more alien. Why didn't he...

_Remember? A sudden flashback before his eyes: A house, no, a manor, expensive things everywhere. He was little, so little. He sat on the lap of a man, his father. The face blurred. Same his mother, standing in front of him, happy voices, happy times... A new scene, his nanny watching over him, alone in this giant house. Sharlto in a corner, humming a faint melody, the same as always. His first day in school, then the day he departed from home, alone, his parents absent, "busy", the nanny in his mind repeated over and over.  
__Other children, laughing at him, he didn't know how to make friends, his heart raced, as always. The lonely nights in his dorm room, then the day THEY came to get him, the day when he fled, with Sharlto there. All the pain, the never-ending headache, pain, pain, PAIN –_

When Andrew regained consciousness again, he lay on the dusty ground. His heart raced, but it was okay. It had always been like that, so Andrew didn't care much anymore.

Sharlto's head hovered over him, concerned. The humming noise had gotten louder, like an old children's lullaby. At least it soothed down the boy, it never failed to.

The headaches again. They appeared from time to time, always accompanied by flashbacks of his former life, always the same. Oh, how he wished that it would stop and he could regain his memories. All he knew was his name and his birthday. He was just a stranger in a strange world.

Shaking off the dust, the boy got up, his head still heavy from the headaches.

"Time to go home, Sharlto. I'm not feeling well. Take the beans, thank you for that, we'll search anew tomorrow", Andrew mumbled, packed his things and climbed out of the ruins.

Two hours to go. Great. He always hated returning, and he had to be quick. Evening and night time was hunting time for the shadows and all these wild animals that had escaped from the abandoned zoos, and Andrew only had a small knife.

As the light from above disappeared and the world was turned into a mass of different tones of grey again, the two lonely survivors trotted through the ruins and parks. Minutes passed, half an hour, an hour...

Suddenly, something hushed over the street, making the two stop. Sharlto growled. A dangerous animal or a shadow was the last thing they wanted to encounter today. Andrew took out his knife, as the mysterious something appeared again.

The boy had to contain a laugh. It was a sheep, white, woolly and innocent. Sharlto hissed and the sheep ran away, terrified.

Andrew could have killed the animal and taken it home, but that was something he couldn't do, hunting and killing. And so, he rather relied on the cans and other stuff they had found and stored in the hiding place.

Accompanied by Sharlto's humming, they continued their way back home.

* * *

In their quarter, Andrew locked all the doors, then settled down on an old couch in the living room.

The house where they had found shelter was one of the few in a settlement that had not been destroyed, and now the two lived here all alone.

Andrew, with some help from all kinds of books he had found, had managed to build some power aggregates so they even had electricity. The disadvantage was that he now stumbled over all the wires spread on the floors. But better that than living in complete darkness.

Andrew turned on the CD- Player. Music soothed his headaches. And made him feel less alone. The voice of other human beings, of someone who possibly had been abducted or killed by the intruders, too, forgotten, but still there for him.

Exhausted, the boy soon had slept in. Sharlto, who had retreated to a corner, took a blanket in his fangs and placed it over the sleeping boy's fragile body. The cat watched over the child for a moment, then turned around.

A smile appeared on his face. Little did the child know about his strange companion, but that was okay. It was better to protect him than to cause him more distress. The animal was much more than just a simple cat. But time after time...

Sharlto smirked. _Andrew..._ So young and already living alone. Sharlto was proud of that. But if he couldn't fight for himself, Andrew would sooner or later be caught by the aliens. That was the last thing he wanted for the boy, his companion, the one he wanted to protect from everything, as much as he could. No one should harm him.

The cat already knew what he had to do. After all, he had already sensed that HE would come, and Andrew should not get into trouble unprepared. The cat couldn't force the boy to behave in the way he wanted the child to, but it was his duty to at least give him the chance of having success.

As quiet as possible, he climbed through a window (as always, Andrew had forgotten to lock something) and escaped into the cold and starless night.

* * *

The next morning, Andrew awoke, without any headache left. He pushed away the blanket and stood up.

In the kitchen, he took a can of baked beans (Oh, he had lots of those. Could it be possible for one child to survive his entire life with beans?, he often mused.) and poured the slimy mass into a bowl. Thanks to electricity and the magical advantages of microwaves, his breakfast soon was ready to eat.

Now he had to get something for Sharlto... But where was the cat?

The boy noticed the open window. _Oh no. _From time to time, the cat disappeared, but always returned after some hours. Where could he be? And why was he gone?

Loud scratches at the door were the answer to his thoughts. It was a rhythmic sound, Sharlto's melody whenever he returned.

Relieved, he opened the door to let his friend in. And was astonished.

In front of the animal's paws lay a polished sword with a curved blade. It was simple, yet beautifully crafted. Strange symbols were engraved on the metal's sides.

"For me?", Andrew asked with a smile. His anger over the nightly escape was already gone.

The cat nodded a bit, then stood up and retreated into his favourite corner.

The boy however picked up the sword. It was unbelievably light, basically without any weight. It just felt... right in his hands. Now he was prepared for whatever danger would come.

"THANKS A LOT, SHARLTO!", he screamed over his shoulder, then ran on the street to practise.

He stabbed the air and swung the sword as long as he could, until his arm felt numb and his hunger came back. Now he would have to microwave the beans anew. _Great._

In the meantime he went upstairs and changed clothes, which meant choosing from a batch of shirts and trousers carelessly thrown into a corner.

Fitted with a white shirt, a tie and blue shorts, he went down again. Sharlto seemed to be rather amused.

The boy ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, smiled and finally said, "I do look like a schoolboy, don't I?"

He laughed, and added, "Well, who cares, huh? We're alone, I could run around in a clown costume and no one would notice. Ahhh, Sharlto, that's the advantages of being the sole inhabitant of such a metropolis. So, where do we want to go today? I would – "

Outside, in the garden, a whirring sound had appeared.

* * *

**AN:** Hope y'all liked the first chapter. To be honest, I wrote 3 different versions and so, I hope that you are satisfied with the final choice. I'll try to update soon, okay? The first one is just to introduce Andrew and Sharlto, but the Doctor will appear fairly soon.

In the meantime, you can, if you want to, leave a review if you have questions, suggestions, corrections or other stuff you want to get off your mind. I'm already looking forward to hear from you! :D

A big thanks for reading! ~the-white-deer


	2. Chapter 2: The First Encounter

Hello, my dear readers!

Sorry for the long wait, but due to my graduation class trip + holidays, I wasn't able to update or even just write something. (I actually was in Barcelona, the city, not the planet. :P)

I also have to admit that it's hard to write the Doctor, so he might be quite OOC. Sorry for that. ;) Nevertheless, I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, it belongs to the BBC. I only own the OCs.

* * *

Chapter 2: The First Encounter

Andrew and Sharlto hurried outside, to see what had caused the loud noise.

Amidst some flowers, on the green and wild, high grass, a blue box had materialized. It read "Police Box" on big letters above the door.

"Sharlto? Please tell me that this box has always been here and I just didn't notice it", Andrew said and looked over his shoulder to the big cat.

He didn't get an answer. Instead, the big cat simply stared at the box. He seemed to be oddly interested in the box, somehow satisfied with what he saw or maybe just curious about what would emerge from the box.

Andrew however was shaking. The sword in his hands got heavy. If this was a new kind of ship made by the intruders, and now a bunch of shadows would come out, he would be lost.

"Oh please, just let it be a bad dream", the boy mumbled, his heart racing.

And so they stood outside, Andrew with his sword raised in front of him for his own protection, Sharlto behind him, still focusing on the box, and for endless minutes, nothing happened.

But at the same moment it started to rain, the door of the strange box swung open.

Andrew, who hadn't expected a movement, leaped backwards and fell on the wet ground. The sword tumbled out of his hands and landed on the garden's old stone path with a loud rattle.

As fast as he could, the boy jumped up and grabbed the blade – and pointed it right into the face of the man that had just stumbled out of the box. He didn't look like a dangerous alien, no. This was just a man in a suit with strange hair.

On another day, Andrew would have laughed, but he still was so tensed that he couldn't even move.

The man however didn't seem to have noticed him, instead he stared into the sky and murmured something about broken circuits, a planet called Barcelona and "interactive gyro conductor scopes" that definitely had to be fixed soon.

It was only then when he noticed the trembling boy, looking as if he had just returned from school, in front of him.

"Well, hello? Did I just land in one of these Amaranian war schools again? Would you –"

In a (unwanted) high pitched tone, Andrew screamed, "Back away! I-I am dangerous, I have a sword! ...Who are you anyway?"

The strange man looked a bit amused, then he slowly pointed a finger at the blade. His voice remained serious as he said, "Your sword. If you are as dangerous as you promise, then you should notice it's pointed upside down, shouldn't you?"

Horrified, the boy stared at the weapon. The man was right. In a swift movement, he turned the sword around and pointed it at the man anew.

This time, he couldn't help but grin, despite his still-present fear.

"Now, I'll ask you again. Who are you?", Andrew said, now far more steadier.

The man sighed and answered, "I'm the Doctor. Now, I don't want to –"

The stranger didn't speak further. He seemed to have spotted something behind the child and now, he was staring over there, not moving.

Andrew grew even more scared. He didn't dare to turn around, because he already knew what was awaiting him. He could hear how Sharlto began to growl quietly, and this confirmed his thoughts.

In his head, he already could see the red eyes and the grey figure of the shadow, just centimetres away from touching him.

"What is that? I've seen a lot in my 900 years, believe me, but never anything like that", the "Doctor", as he had called himself, whispered while fixating the creature with his eyes.

Andrew swallowed hard and let the blade fall slowly.

"It's a shadow. One touch, and you're gone. They've caught them all, all these people", he answered and finally turned his head.

The beast was some metres away, on the other side of the garden under a tree. It held its head high in the air, as if it wanted to catch the three's scent.

Andrew had already found out that the shadows seemed to be nearly blind and deaf. Apparently, they relied on smells and vibrations from the ground below them.

This exemplar now slowly advanced further into the garden, snarling and sniffing.

The Doctor tapped Andrew on the shoulder, the look on his face concerned. His hand was holding open the door of the box.

"Come. Into the TARDIS, now, both of you! Or do you want to stay here?"

The boy shook his head and made some cautious and slow steps away from the monster, as he didn't want it to sense movement on the ground.

He looked at the Doctor and said, "No. We'll be trapped in there, they don't stop, they wait. I've seen people surrender to them, after hours of hiding! We can only outrun them, I don't know how to stop them!"

He felt the tears in his eyes. He didn't want to die now, not after he had made it for so long.

Sharlto growled louder, the monster had gotten nearer.

"You just run away?", the man asked, and the boy simply nodded.

The stranger seemed to think for a moment, shrugged, then finally answered, "Huh, always a good idea... Well, then, let's run!"

* * *

Suddenly, the boy found himself running, through the little wooden door in the garden's fence, on the streets, through the settlement.

The monster had sensed them, each of its steps accompanied by a thump as it chased the three through the empty streets.

The man was in front of Andrew, Sharlto behind him, and so, he simply followed as they made their way through the settlement, further into the city. Sometimes he nearly fell, it was still raining and the tarmac had become quite slippery.

_Does he even know where he is going?_, Andrew thought as he concentrated on the man's back. _Why am I even following him? But...Do I have another chance? Minutes ago, I was holding a sword right into his face!_

...Which he was still holding, as he noticed. His fingers already hurt from gripping the handle tightly. _I should have left it in the garden, _he thought as he tried to shift it from one hand into the other one.

If they wouldn't stop soon, he'd probably have to hold on and catch his breath, but that meant getting caught by the shadow.

Now on a bigger road, the Doctor suddenly turned left, right into the ruins of a shop. Only thick layers of rubble and the wobbly remains of high walls were left of the building, like in the one Andrew and Sharlto had visited the day before.

The man turned and shouted, "See that wall? Get up there, and when I tell you, push it down, okay? I'll keep that thing occupied!"

As he looked up, Andrew noticed what the Doctor wanted to do: Crush the monster under the pile of stones. _Good idea,_ he had to admit in his mind.

Letting fall his weapon, he climbed up on the stones as fast as he could, followed by the cat. Below him, the strange Doctor was busy stomping on the ground, in front of him the grey monster.

More than once, the child had to stop to search for safe places to climb further. Each time he made another step, another stone tumbled down. Luckily, the monster was too focused on the stomping as that he would notice the two.

After seemingly endless minutes, Andrew finally reached the top of the stone pile. He was breathing heavily and his heart raced.

His palms were torn from sharp rocks and dirty with a mix of dust and rain. Despite the pain, he pressed them against the wall. Now there was only the call he had to wait for.

The shadow slowly approached, and for the first time, the boy noticed what the alien really looked like: It resembled a reptile, with a massive body and a flat and long head, like a crocodile.

It was strange to see a real shape, all the other shadows had only been schemes without any form, just eyes, claws and teeth. This one however... It was _different_. Unlike the others, it also walked on all four legs, not only two. Had they evolved?

Just as it got on its hind legs, ready to catch the Doctor, the latter one screamed, "NOW!"

Together, the child and the cat stemmed all their weight against the unstable wall, until they could feel how the stones began tumbling downwards.

First, the monster was hit by one stone, then two. It turned its head slowly, staring right into Andrew's eyes. In that moment, it seemed rather lost, as if it didn't even know what it did there.

It screamed loudly and was about to turn around as the wall eventually fell down, right on the monster's body. The following scream was deafening. The shadow twisted and turned below the stones, its claws twitching. Then, it went silent, its limbs falling down lifelessly.

The shadow was dead.

Slowly, Andrew climbed down and picked up the sword.

The Doctor stood in front of the dead creature's head. He was thoughtful, and didn't say a word when the child appeared next to him.

As the boy looked at the lifeless body, he was astonished. Instead of a grey monster, there was only a normal, green crocodile laying under the stones. It appeared much more smaller now, less dangerous. It really must have been lost as it had chased after the three, Andrew realized.

The Doctor shook his head and sighed. "Alpha-6. That's where your shadows come from... Well, the aliens that make them. But normally they look different, not grey, not that dangerous. It must be new technology... They take the planet's normal population and turn them into their slaves, then they harvest the resources, mostly the core. In the end, they leave only shells behind, not more", he explained with a bitter tone in his voice.

"The chimneys!", Andrew exclaimed, "That's where they work, isn't it?"

"Yep. And if we don't do anything about it, then there won't be Earth no more. I hope, we're not too late..."

* * *

The three were returning to the house, leaving behind the creature's lifeless body. It was deadly silent on the walk back.

Neither the Doctor nor Andrew had something they wanted to talk about. Instead, they both were busy thinking. Even Sharlto was trotting next to them without any humming or other noise.

Andrew had a lot of questions concerning the man, but right now, he didn't dare asking. Maybe it was better to wait for a better chance.

At least, the Doctor didn't seem to be hostile. For some reason, he really cared for what had happened, even though he had just arrived on this planet. Was he an alien, too?

The only thing the man had said, right after they had left the ruins, had been that he wanted to go back to his box, which he had called a "Tardis". He didn't want to leave it alone, he had explained.

As they slowly, but still carefully walked back through the grey streets, Andrew suddenly realized something.

_What if all these shadows were... human? Do the aliens turn them into monsters for catching new slaves?_ If that was true, then they soon would have to fight against humans... and kill them? That was certainly a thing that the boy didn't want to think about. _But how should we fight against them? There isn't always a wall to push down!_

Finally, they reached the house. The fence around the garden was broken now, a giant hole where the shadow must have broken through. The wood was shattered everywhere.

Andrew already doomed the day when he would have to clean up the mess..._if he would have the chance to._

He nearly ran into the Doctor as the latter one had stopped while stepping through the hole.

The boy peered into the garden. Where once had been grass, were now only muddy footprints.

And amidst this chaos, there was...nothing? The grass was still flat where it had been pressed down by the weight, but there was just an empty place.

The TARDIS was gone.

* * *

**AN:** That's it, second chapter finished, hurray! (This time, there were only two versions. ;) ) Next time, I'll try to update sooner.

Now a reply to Zee Captain's Loyal Pokemon: Thanks a lot for your review! You really made my day, as I was quite anxious about the reaction to the first chapter. Here you have more story! ;) Sorry I let you wait for some time, hope it's okay for you and that you'll like the new chapter! :D

Also a big thanks for the follows, I'm glad you seem to have liked it! :)

See you next time, and don't forget: Suggestions, corrections, questions, other stuff → Just leave me a review!

Looking forward to hear from you, the-white-deer :D


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